Tools and Technology

A Decision Support System (DSS) can be defined in many ways. The working definition the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) uses is, "A spatially based computer application or data that assists a researcher or manager in making decisions ." This is quite a broad definition and it needs to be, as the possibilities for types of DSS are limited only by the user group and the developer...

Remote locations, rugged topography, extreme weather conditions, high numbers of threatened and endangered taxa, and widespread degradation of native ecosystems by invasive species makes routine monitoring to determine status and trends of ecosystems and native and invasive taxa difficult and expensive in the Hawaiian Islands. There is a need to supplement existing monitoring protocols with more...

Montane plant communities in widely separated intact natural environments of the world have responded to changes in precipitation and temperature regimes by shifting both margins and core distributional ranges upward in elevation. Reduced evapotranspiration rates in cooler climate zones at higher elevation may compensate for less precipitation and higher temperatures within species’ former ranges...

The presence of top predators is considered an indication of ecosystem health and can play a vital role in ecosystem functioning by promoting biodiversity, and can contribute to regulating prey species abundance, and herbivory. In the intermountain west, the largest mammalian predator and obligate carnivore is the mountain lion, Puma concolor . This elusive and wide-ranging predator occupies a...

Models based upon coastal engineering equations have been developed to quantify wind fetch length and several physical wave characteristics including significant height, length, peak period, maximum orbital velocity, and shear stress These models, modified to operate using Environmental Systems Research Institute's ArcGIS 10.0/10.1 Geographic Information System platform, were used to quantify...

There are ongoing needs for analytical tools to investigate the cumulative effects of fluctuating water flow and depth. The Connectivity and Inundation Tool was developed at UMESC to help address these needs. The tool allows for the investigation of the historic hydrographs or proposed theoretical hydrographs. It does this by utilizing existing 2D hydrodynamic models that have been encapsulated...

Maintaining a current understanding of ecological conditions is fundamental to the National Park Service in meeting its mission to preserve park resources in an unimpaired state for future generations. Ecological monitoring establishes reference conditions, which over time help to define the normal limits of natural variation, determine standards for comparing future changes, and identify the need...

Accurately quantifying and mapping wildlife habitat is critical to investigations of species distribution and habitat relationships, and can greatly facilitate management of forests for multiple resources. However acquiring field-based, empirical data is often costly and labor intensive. Modeling provides an alternative technique for describing and mapping habitat, but the usefulness of models...

Genetic and demographic analyses are key to understanding mechanisms of population and species declines and recovery potential. They are equally important to managers assessing risk of extinction relative to the provisions of the Endangered Species Act, and for establishing recovery goals and planning recovery actions. In addition to the methodologically and conceptually complex nature of these...

Predicted climate impacts on arid U.S. Great Basin wetlands will alter their number, distribution, and quality (e.g., salinity). The scarcity and isolation of these wetlands make them essential not only to wildlife but to ranchers, farmers, and urban areas that rely on their ecosystem services. Great Basin wetlands are important habitats for migratory birds at high volumes, but they become...

WERC's Dr. Amy Vandergast and colleagues merge genetic data with mapping and modeling tools to inform biodiversity conservation efforts. They define evolutionary significant units within species, reveal evolutionary mechanisms responsible for diversification, and identify regions with high genetic diversity for protection.

At the population level, Dr. Amy Vandergast and her team estimates important population parameters such as effective migration (or gene flow) and the number of breeding adults (or effective population size), and quantify the impacts of landscape changes and disturbance on these parameters. This work informs individual species management.